MVCfans.com

Pretty favorable review for the Trees.

http://www.collegesportsmadness.com/article/11775

Just for comparison purposes, here's the link and ranking for Kansas State, coached by former SIU coach Bruce Weber - he did better at SIU than he's doing at KSU

http://www.collegesportsmadness.com/article/11658

Any other MVC teams listed?

Loyola was in there before the Trees.

UNI, ISUr, and UE have to be coming up pretty soon I would think. Those three all have the opportunity to be top 50.

I don't see how ISUR makes it into the top 50 and really UNI either. Red has too many questions in the frontcourt and minimal outside shooting, plus the Hawkins craziness. UNI simply lost too much, not to mention one of the 5-10 best players in program history. Jake can coach as well as anyone, but the talent is more conducive to a preseason 100-75 ranking.

Evansville has all the pieces to be a top 50 team. The man coaching that team is the question. Even Evansville fans themselves would tell you that. If Simmons and Wing play more than Bizorja (i know I butchered that) and Wiley, they won't finish in the top 5 this year. He plays the lineups he should, UE is the clear favorite to finish 2nd.

jackwagon wrote:I don't see how ISUR makes it into the top 50 and really UNI either. Red has too many questions in the frontcourt and minimal outside shooting, plus the Hawkins craziness. UNI simply lost too much, not to mention one of the 5-10 best players in program history. Jake can coach as well as anyone, but the talent is more conducive to a preseason 100-75 ranking.

Evansville has all the pieces to be a top 50 team. The man coaching that team is the question. Even Evansville fans themselves would tell you that. If Simmons and Wing play more than Bizorja (i know I butchered that) and Wiley, they won't finish in the top 5 this year. He plays the lineups he should, UE is the clear favorite to finish 2nd.

UNI and UE might not be Top 50 teams this year but I think either can make a case for an at large if they can handle OOC and get a win or two vs WSU.

Ali wrote:

jackwagon wrote:I don't see how ISUR makes it into the top 50 and really UNI either. Red has too many questions in the frontcourt and minimal outside shooting, plus the Hawkins craziness. UNI simply lost too much, not to mention one of the 5-10 best players in program history. Jake can coach as well as anyone, but the talent is more conducive to a preseason 100-75 ranking.

Evansville has all the pieces to be a top 50 team. The man coaching that team is the question. Even Evansville fans themselves would tell you that. If Simmons and Wing play more than Bizorja (i know I butchered that) and Wiley, they won't finish in the top 5 this year. He plays the lineups he should, UE is the clear favorite to finish 2nd.

UNI and UE might not be Top 50 teams this year but I think either can make a case for an at large if they can handle OOC and get a win or two vs WSU.

If a team "handles" their OOC and gets 1-2 wins against WSU, they will be a Top 50 RPI team.

If a team handles their OOC and gets a game or 2 against WSU, they'll be getting votes in the polls.

It won't take much for UNI to start getting votes. WSU will almost certainly carry a pre-season top-25 ranking.

The good news is the Panther's play another very tough non-conference schedule and can probably afford 3 losses prior to MVC play and still put together a solid at-large resume.

Kyle wrote:It won't take much for UNI to start getting votes. WSU will almost certainly carry a pre-season top-25 ranking.

The good news is the Panther's play another very tough non-conference schedule and can probably afford 3 losses prior to MVC play and still put together a solid at-large resume.

WSU thus far has been seeing rankings in the 7-10 range. It would be a little disappointing if we don't start in the top 10.

Wufan wrote:

Kyle wrote:It won't take much for UNI to start getting votes. WSU will almost certainly carry a pre-season top-25 ranking.

The good news is the Panther's play another very tough non-conference schedule and can probably afford 3 losses prior to MVC play and still put together a solid at-large resume.

WSU thus far has been seeing rankings in the 7-10 range. It would be a little disappointing if we don't start in the top 10.

No kidding. Top 25? Huh?

As for UNI's at-large chances, the last time they played a gauntlet of a schedule we were hearing about a 12-loss UNI team vying for an at-large berth.

UNI definitely has some wiggle room with a good OOC schedule. If UNI has 3 losses entering conference play, they'll probably be close to the Top 25 (depending on who they win and lose against). My question is, do most UNI fans expect UNI to have only 3 losses heading into conference play? I say that after UNI's greatest team in program history had 1 loss entering conference play with an easier schedule. 3 losses against that type of schedule leads me to believe that some Panther fans expect UNI to be Top 25 again this year.